1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to charitable donating and more particularly to systems and methods for charitable donating that provide the donor with increased control over how the donor's donations are used.
2. Background
Charitable donating has gone on for a long time. Many charities put on telethons to increase donations and exposure to new potential donors. More recently, charitable organizations have turned to the Internet to increase their exposure to potential donors and to make it easier for donors to donate.
Present methods of donating allow donors to donate for causes they support. But these methods do not allow the donors to specifically target their donations. The traditional donor also cannot track the use of their donation to monitor precisely how it is spent. For example, a common concern is that donations do not make their way to the intended recipients, either because the resources are diverted to other purposes or because too large of a percentage goes to administrative costs associated with the charitable organization. It is especially difficult for the donor to make small donations, for very targeted purposes of the donor's choosing, and to monitor and track the use of the donations.
Moreover, there are many causes to which donors would like to donate, but for which the traditional methods of charitable donating are not suited. For example, many parents or relatives would like to donate to their child's classroom, but such donations are not currently practical, because: (1) a donation to a teacher is not presently deductible; (2) such donations are not anonymous; (3) gifts to school districts, while deductible, are not guaranteed to benefit the child's classroom; (4) there is no convenient mechanism for donating; and (5) there is no way for the donor to track the use of the donation and ensure it is used appropriately.
While use of the Internet for charitable donating has increased the type and amount of charitable donating, many of the problems described above still exist.